Twelve Democratic-led states have sued the Meals and Drug Administration to problem sure federal restrictions imposed on the distribution of the abortion capsule mifepristone, saying these limits are usually not supported by proof.

The lawsuit, led by Washington state and Oregon, was filed on Thursday in federal court docket in Yakima, Washington and goals to increase entry to mifepristone by permitting it to be prescribed and distributed by any physician or pharmacy, like most medicine. Presently, docs who prescribe mifepristone, and pharmacies that dispense it, should get hold of a particular certification.

In the meantime, a separate lawsuit by anti-abortion activists that seeks to finish entry to the drug is continuing in Texas.

Mifepristone, together with the drug misoprostol, was permitted in 2000 by the FDA for remedy abortion within the first 10 weeks of being pregnant. Medicine abortion accounts for greater than half of U.S. abortions.

Medicine abortion has drawn growing consideration for the reason that U.S. Supreme Court docket final 12 months reversed its landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that had legalized abortion nationwide. The choice enabled greater than a dozen Republican-led states to undertake new abortion bans.

“The federal authorities has recognized for years that mifepristone is protected and efficient,” Washington state Legal professional Basic Bob Ferguson stated on Friday in a press release saying the lawsuit. “Within the wake of the Supreme Court docket’s radical choice overturning Roe v. Wade, the FDA is now exposing docs, pharmacists and sufferers to pointless danger. The FDA’s extreme restrictions on this necessary drug don’t have any foundation in medical science.”

The lawsuit stated mifepristone is “safer than many different widespread medicine FDA regulates, similar to Viagra and Tylenol.”

The opposite states which can be a part of the lawsuit are Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, Rhode Island and Vermont.

An FDA spokesperson declined to touch upon the lawsuit.

Anti-abortion activists have requested a federal decide in Texas to order mifepristone off the market nationwide, arguing that the FDA used an improper course of to approve the drug and didn’t adequately take into account its security for minors.

Along with difficult the FDA’s restrictions on how the drug is made out there, the Democratic-led states are asking the court docket to rule that the company’s approval of mifepristone is lawful and legitimate, probably organising a battle with any order within the Texas case that might require federal appeals courts to weigh in.

The FDA’s particular restrictions on mifepristone are imposed underneath a security program meant to reduce the danger of doubtless harmful medicine. The company has relaxed these restrictions a number of instances since they had been first imposed, most not too long ago in January when it allowed licensed retail pharmacies to dispense mifepristone.

After final 12 months’s Supreme Court docket ruling, President Joe Biden directed federal businesses to increase entry to remedy abortion. Vice President Kamala Harris defended mifepristone on Friday after assembly with reproductive rights teams on the White Home, calling assaults in opposition to it an try and assault basic American rights.